Legislative Watch: Hurricane Edition
On Tuesday, legislators will return to Raleigh for their third “extra session” of 2018. This time, the purpose is to deal with hurricane recovery relief.
But smart bettors are not taking any odds that this session will stick exclusively to unadulterated hurricane relief — not when there is so much more damage that can be done. Already, we’ve heard proposals about sending money to “clean out” coastal rivers, an environmentally destructive version of dredging/channelization that actually worsens downstream flooding.
We can picture legislative thinking about other topics as well. Surely, they might say, the governor must have some power left that can be taken away. And look, early voting doesn’t start for 16 more days; there has to be another way to make voting more difficult for disfavored groups.
But there is one serious item legislators should address immediately: making Duke finally clean up its coal ash mess. As noted in the previous article, coal ash is spilling from at least two Duke facilities’ flooded storage landfills, visibly leaking into the overflowing Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers. With legislators in session this week, the time is now to ask them to remove coal ash from pits so close to our sources of drinking water.
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